The new album from the band Beirut is now here. It took only two years for singer/song wirter Zachary Francis Condon to publish new production on 16th of February 2009. This time they published an double EP called The March of Zapotec/Holland, the later called individually Realpeople Holland. The two EPs derive their inspiration across the globe, Zapotec is inspired by Mexican funeral music and Realpeople by Hollandaise disco pop.
The March of Zapotec sound exactly like Beirut in their original assemblage, it would be hard to guess that a 20-men band was hired to play in the back. As the music is bit more melancholic than the previous EPs, it brings a little bit darker edge to the typical melancholic but hopefull-mood. Otherwise Zapotec doesn’t give any surprises. This disappoints the listener, as mr. Condon’s music always have been very innovative and had a surprising element to it. In other words The March of Zapotec is not bad, but not anything special either.
What is good about this EP, is that this time mr. Condon focuses mostly on the instrumental sounds; he lets the melodies tell the stories almost without any lyrics. After a second listen-through it is easy to fall in love with the melodies he gives us. (And thrust me, it brakes my heart when I say it is not all that good)
Realpeople Holland, in the other hand, is a wonderful breath of fresh air. Beirut has mostly focused on acoustic sounds, so synthetic instrumensts give a whole new aspect to the band. My Night with the Prostitute from Marseille starts EP, and it blows your mind. It is clearly Beirut, but with a whole new sound. The rest as brilliant as the first one, playing the common longing melodies, but make you walk different paths of life. The whole EP just proves how brilliant mr. Condon is. He can be given any instrument and he will make beautiful music with it. And the best about him is that he is not afraid to try out different things.
As a whole the both EPs are good although the later is better by far. Zapotec gives new and old and it drives inspiration from a totally different culture than Realpeople. Realpeople is a step forward for the band but not a leap to unknown. Both are inspiring, different, nostalgic, longing and most importantly, beautiful. The EPs are definitely Beirut’s production and they can be very proud of them.
Finnish, 20-something girl looks at the world and sees people, music, nature; all is beautiful, but also so delicate. I try to stay in the subject, but probably won't have any success. Mostly I'll post reviews, but hopefully I'll discuss more about the world. This is a new blog and my first one attempt to write one, so we just have to wait and see what direction this journey takes us.
(Oh god, don't you just hate how those damn hippies write, the way they talk about live as a journey and describe the world almost like a human being. Sorry about that:)
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